House Democrats have promoted controversial Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to the position of Vice Chair on the Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights subcommittee within the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Omar was promoted within the committee despite a history of antisemitic rhetoric that resulted in a House resolution in 2019 condemning antisemitism — though the resolution did not mention Omar by name and included other prejudices.
The promotion also came just days after House Democrats voted to strip freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of all of her committee assignments because of comments she made on social media about the QAnon conspiracy theory prior to being elected to Congress. Omar made most of her antisemitic comments after taking her seat in Congress.
Omar had claimed that Americans who support Israel owe “allegiance to a foreign country.” She also tweeted that members of Congress had been bribed by Jews to support Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.” In 2012, she had tweeted that “Israel has hypnotized the world.” She also supports the antisemitic “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (BDS) movement, which singles out Israel, and compared Israel to Nazi Germany in a House resolution backing the movement.
Her subcommittee could deal with matters relating to Israel, as the Biden administration prepares to re-enter the United Nations Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration left partly because of its anti-Israel bias. Israel is currently rejecting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to hear a case brought by the Palestinian Authority.
Pelosi also promoted Omar despite concerns that she had enriched her husband’s political consulting firm by paying it nearly $2.7 million dollars. Omar, who initially denied the relationship, reportedly cut ties with the firm in November.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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